It was a Tamil village located in southern Eelam. Now it was dead.
It was a Tamil village located in southern Eelam. Now it was dead.
The village of Pandiruppu, where Tamils traditionally lived, near the commercial town of Kalmunai, was now dead and in ruins. There was silence everywhere. Only a few dogs were standing on the streets, howling in pain. The crows also cawed loudly, calling their peers to a feast. The birds, who usually feasted on worms, insects and dirt, found a new delicacy that gave them a new taste for eating. On that street, the body of a Tamil man who had been burned with rubber was lying completely decomposed.
Burnt houses… broken buildings… charred crops…. Pandiruppu village was completely lifeless.
“Why are we here?” The ten-year-old boy asks, clutching his mother’s hands tightly.
“This is a refugee camp. Those criminals burned down our house. Now we have nowhere to stay. That’s why we’ve come here.” The words came out of Sivagami’s mouth in a choked voice.
“They won’t come back here, will they?” Thavarasa asks again. The terror still hasn’t left that child’s heart. Sivagami felt like crying. However, she didn’t cry. She calmly said, “No, my dear, they won’t come. They won’t come. You’re not afraid of anything. If they do, we won’t be afraid.”
When his mother finished speaking in a shaky voice, Thavarasa said, looking at her mother with longing. “No, I’m not afraid”
Sivagami was lost in thought as she held her son’s head. The terrible events that had happened a few days ago loomed before her like memories.
There was darkness everywhere. The sudden sounds of horror that had broken through the darkness echoed throughout the entire village of Pandiruppu. The village was in chaos, the rumble of carts everywhere. There were cries of distress everywhere. The crowd was approaching Sivagami’s house.
Sivagami’s husband Chellamuthu stood stunned, not knowing what to do to save his family. There was no way to escape. The crowd was shouting wildly from the front and back of the house. Sivagami hid behind a cupboard in the bedroom of the inner house. Sivagami’s elderly daughter Kayalvili was trembling from the right, hugging her mother. She entered her mother’s saree and Thavarasa was unable to understand all, began to cry as he hugged his mother.
Chellamuthu locked his eldest son Kumaravelu in the kitchen and stood there, waiting for his death. The crowd was approaching the house. The sound of the door was loud. Sinhala voices were heard with murderous fervor, with some Tamil voices in between. Chellamuthu understood that the Sinhala army and the Muslim Home Guard had come to destroy them.
The group of ghouls broke the door and entered with murderous fervor. Sharp weapons gleamed in each of their hands.
In the next moment, a sharp weapon like an axe in the hand of a ghoul fell on Chellamuthu’s head, and he fell with a loud scream. As the blood spurted from his head spread all over the hall of the house, another ghoul slashed Kumaravelu’s back with a sharp weapon. His screams of pain echoed throughout the house. Meanwhile, another group of ghouls entered the bedroom. They drag Kayalvili out. When Sivagami tries to stop her, a man hits her on the back with a stick.
Two days later, when Sivagami regains consciousness, only Thavarasa is standing next to her, moaning. It was then that Sivagami realized that she had been brought to the Pandiruppu village school as a refugee. It was then that she learned that in the incident that day, Chellamuthu and Kumaravelu were killed, Kayalvili was raped and then killed by the ghouls, and the house was looted and burned. She realized that she and Thavarasa had escaped by chance.
Now the refugee camp was deserted and looked like a graveyard. Only a few hundred Tamils who had survived that terrible night had gathered in the camp. Some were still crying. Everyone’s face was covered in fear of death.
Sivagami was staring at something under a tall vakai tree in the school grounds. Thavarasa was lying on his mother’s lap, staring at the yellow vakai flowers blooming. This vakai. The cruelty of these vakai sticks. The school where he had run and studied until a few days ago. Thavarasa spent a few moments reliving his school days in his mind.
One day during the school break, when he played “army and tigers” with his friends, he stubbornly stood on the side of the Tigers and finally attacked his friends who were patrolling on army’s behalf from behind and shouted in victory. When the master who happened to be there called the boys and beat them with vakai sticks. Everything that appeared and disappeared in the boy’s mind was like a dream.
As the tears that flowed from Sivakami’s eyes fell on Thavarasa’s hands, he looked at his mother with longing. “Why are you crying? They must have killed my brother, sister and father.”
Sivakami couldn’t bear it and started crying as she hugged her son. “Don’t cry, mother.” Thavarasa tried to comfort her mother, wiping away her tears.
What a peaceful family. A man who never thought of harming even a worm. A son and daughter who knew no sin.
Thavarasa, who was thinking about something, suddenly said. “Mother”, that day Nisar uncle also came. I saw him, mother! Seeing that her mother was quiet, Thavarasa continued to ask.
“Why did Nisar uncle also come with them? He is roaming with his brother and sister.” The boy’s mind struggled to understand the confusing event for a long time. Only those who had been there knew how closely the Muslims and Tamils living in southern Eelam lived.
Nisar mentioned by Thavarasa was a close friend of Sivagami’s deceased son. What Thavarasa said was true. Sivagami knew it. Nisar had also become one of those who had been manipulated by the Sinhalese government and fallen into the trap set by the Muslim leaders. Sivagami responded to her son’s question with silence.
The days passed slowly. Those who were trapped in that school refugee camp were paranoid, questioning their future. Without proper care, those in that camp were left orphaned. Even those who come as public institutions will turn back, unable to fully meet the needs of the refugees.
Darkness began to cover the sky. As darkness fell, the village of Pandiruppu appeared as a forest of ashes as far as the eye could see. Sivagami bent down and kissed Thavarasa, who was sleeping soundly in her lap. Her heart felt like it would burst when she thought of the condition of her son, who had become a refugee at an age when he should be running around.
The howling of the wild jackals seemed to welcome the darkness. There was silence everywhere… silence… Those fierce beasts were once again inside the refugee camp. The sleeping refugee camp awakened. The fierce men who had surrounded the refugee camp entered shouting. Thavarasa, who was lying on his mother’s lap, woke up startled and hugged his mother, crying. “Have they come here? Have they come here?” These words kept coming from Thavarasa’s mouth.
Sharp weapons were flashing in the hands of those savages.
Everywhere there were screams of death…. screams….
Many people were being brutally attacked. Blood was being stained inside the refugee camp. Many young men and women were being dragged out. They did not know what would happen to them. Even in the refugee camp, the cruelty of those cruel people. It was shaking the hearts of those innocent people. The ground of that school refugee camp was soaked in tears and blood. Some were still moaning with half-healed wounds. The children and young men were crying and exhausted. That terrible night was slowly moving while the refugee camp was awake.
Thavarasa, who was lying on his mother’s lap, said he held his mother’s hands tightly. “Amma, are you afraid?” “What are you afraid of? I am by your side,” Sivagami said, hugging her son to her chest. “Will they come here again?” Thavarasa said with a mixture of fear and pain. “No,” she could not continue speaking. “No… No one will save us, mother. They will come to kill us again.”
Sivagami could not say anything. Thavarasa, who was always in a hurry, was also very intelligent. Thavarasa, who was staring at the branch of the wattle tree that was growing tall outside, suddenly said, “If they had, wouldn’t we have died somehow?”
Sivagami could not digest these words. Holding her son to her chest, “Don’t say that” she said, struggling to find any powerful words to calm her son. But…. “Mother, shall we go to the forest? The LTTE will protect us there.”
Suddenly, when Thavarasa said this, Sivagami stumbled. It was only a few moments. When she calmed herself down and remembered what had happened, a light shone on her sorrowful face.
That night, Sivagami was walking quickly towards the dense forest surrounding the Pandiruppu village area. Thavarasa was walking at a new speed, holding her mother’s hands tightly.
The scenes of the army team attacked his during his school days were now coming back to Thavarasa’s mind frequently.
– Mani Nagesh
– Erimalai April 1991.
– Edited by: Tamilarasan Abdulkader
(Translation by Tamilpriya)
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